Devil's Five is a horror anthology with occult themes and is reminiscent of Tales From The Crypt or Creepshow.
It's not a big budget studio film, but rather a labor of love that took the filmmakers years to create. It's important to remember this going in.
The quality of the segments varies as 3 different directors worked on it. My favorite segments were "Stash" & the wraparound "Devil's Five". My least favorite was "Choke".
I'm not going to delve into the plot details as I don't want to give any spoilers here. There's an interesting wrap around that ties the other four stories together, therefore making five parts, and with the occult theme that's where you get your title of Devil's Five from.
Since I'm not going to discuss the story elements or ruin any surprises, I wanted to take a moment to mention the cinematography here and the actual directing of the film. The wraparound scene is action-packed and really pulls you in and gets you interested in seeing what the rest of the movie has to offer. The first segment "Abandoned", starts with the two main characters having a discussion that some people might dismiss, but you should pay attention as it foreshadows the shape of things to come. This combined with some of the cinematic shots and artistic directing of the piece get you interested right away. If there's anything detrimental about this segment I would say that there is what I feel and unnecessary nude scene, But otherwise I enjoyed it.
My favorite segment is the final segment of the four stories, "Stash". Again I want to point out some of the camera work here, very atmospheric and suspenseful, to a chilling effect in a few scenes.
Overall I would say if you're a fan of horror, the type of person who used to like to go to the old video stores and pick out a random VHS or DVD horror show or two to watch on the weekend This is just the film for you. A good variety of different horror stories with varying degrees of suspense that are tied together by a wraparound piece. You can tell that this is a labor of love, and not the director and the actors and cinematographers worked very hard to bring their vision to the screen.
Director Terry R Wickham is someone who's work generally improves with each movie or film piece that he releases, And it's been a pleasure watching him develop over the years as a filmmaker. This is by far the best, And I'm looking forward to his next film which will be a feature length film called Double Vision.
On a side note, before leaving my review I read a few of the others on this site. The one overly long negative review in particular was laughable. It's obviously written by a want to be film critic that comes across as a filled director or producer with an ax to grind. No one should dislike a film this much, it's to the point of almost being a parody.
8 out of 10 stars and keep in mind that is given going in with the viewpoint that this is not a professional Hollywood studio film but as I said a labor of love made with a lower budget than most films yet still managing to pull off a suspenseful horror filled adventure.
